https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojr9KSqDQoA

I learned more about lifting and muscle function in this 96 minute video than I have in a long time, and I've been lifting for over 25 years.

Summary:

Do you have to break muscle down to grow? (video). Long answer: No. What you do need to have are:

  • Energy (sugar & fat)
  • The building blocks required to build muscle (amino acids/protein)
  • Motivation to build the muscle; a biological incentive to do the work.

Muscle is way more important to wellness and longevity than previously understood. For example, we've only recently learned that our musculature is part of the endocrine system and is actually the largest organ in the body. Muscle actually sends signals to the brain and other organs and has a gargantuan impact on a variety of the body's regulation mechanisms. This is why putting on lean muscle mass helps regulate diabetes, blood pressure, body fat, etc.

The three most important factors predicting how long you will live are (in order):

  • Leg strength
  • VO2 max
  • Lean muscle mass

Sources:

  1. Total amount of muscle mass as predictor of mortality

  2. Vo2max

  3. Leg strength

The biggest revelation for me was that beating yourself up and being really sore is actually what you don't want to do. Conventional wisdom tells us to kick ass and most guys do way too much volume, normally resulting in being beat to hell after working out. What the research now shows is that our workouts should only be making us mildly to moderately sore for a day or 2, that way we can have more frequent training sessions, assuming your goal is hypertrophy. Reading this may sound like common sense, but watch the video. They do a much better job of explaining this than I ever could.

As a side note, this is one of my biggest gripes with CrossFit actually. The workouts are so brutal that I can only get into the gym twice a week if I'm lucky, not to mention there's no real set progression unless I'm in a specific strength training program. That severe muscle soreness also takes away the fun factor which further makes me want to avoid going.

Keep these elements in mind when building your program, and also the other research they discuss in the video. Exercise science is really making a lot of progress in recent years, so don't be afraid to change your mind on some things.

And finally, here's an article that discusses the topics in the video in more detail:

http://daily.barbellshrugged.com/common-training-myths-busted-w-dr-andy-galpin-episode-136/